Most Admired
1. Marcus Aurelius (Ruled from 161 AD - Died 180 AD)
- Conqueror, Emperor, Philosopher. He is the last of the Five Good Emperors of Rome.
He put Parthia to it's knees in the east. Fought (with success) against various Germanic tribes (most notably, the Marcomanni)
This man is also the father of the #1 on the list of Hell-Spawn.
2. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Born 236 BC - Died 183 BC)
- Avenged his father, conquered Iberia (modern day Spain), decimated Elephants with his famous vertical line formations.
Decisively wrecked the Carthaginians at Zama and basically saved Rome from Hannibal. Was given the title Africanus for that very reason.
3. Trajan (Ruled from 98 AD - Died 117 AD)
- Was declared Optimus Princeps by the senate (meaning best ruler)
Under his rule, Rome reached it's largest extent ever. There is honestly not much more to say but that he was an amazing Soldier-Emperor.
4. Hadrian (Ruled from 117 AD - Died 138 AD)
- Known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the end of the Roman Empire in the north (and end of the civilized world at that).
He also revived Greek Architecture and rebuilt the Pantheon as well as built the Temple of Venus in Rome. He also spent more than half of his
rule outside of Italy, The reason for this is quite amazing as he decided it was better to strengthen the complete infrastructure within the Empire rather than
to keep conquering the new lands of the enemies.
(Click Here if you wish to see the complete purpose of his Travels)
5. Justinian (Ruled from 527 AD - Died 525 AD)
- Was the last man to ever unify Rome, built the Hagia Sophia and many other great buildings in Constantinople
Created the Justinian Code (modernized, organized Roman laws etc)
Honorable Mentions: Vespasian, Julian I, Septimus Severus, Cicero, Cato, The Gracchi brothers, Diocletian, Augustus, Titus, Antoninus Pius, Cincinnatus.
I also really like the Komnenos Dynasty & the Palaiologos Dynasty of the Byzantines (they are technically Romans and don't you forget it
)
Hell-Spawn
1. Commodus
- Watch Gladiator you'll know why he makes #1 (infact his reign is marked as the official decline of the Roman Empire)
2. Elagabalus
- This ****** kid became Emperor at the age of 14 and immediately made Commodus look like the perfect Roman with
his 'controversial' actions. He cross-dressed and whored himself to common men in whorehouses throughout Rome. He desperately wanted to become a women & offered to pay any physician who could do it.
He would stand around naked in the palace and would try to 'seduce' any man walking by his bedchambers. He even replaced Jupiter as the main God of Rome and installed some Syrian God. Eventually, after 4 or 5 years of this ****he was stabbed to death,
beheaded, thrown in the tiber and spat on. Earning him this #2 spot of
Hell-Spawn
3. Caligula
- At first, everyone loved Caligula he paid the military handsomely, and threw lavish (but not overly excessive) parties and people overall looked forward to his reign. Then he got sick.
Once he recovered he apparently became a demon. He made his horse a senator and he killed anyone who would look at him wrong. He loved to torture people and used the saw as his torture weapon of choice. He would also
chew on the balls of his victims
and made people address him as 'divine' or 'god' or something of that similarity. Oh and he also threw a bunch of spectators into the Coliseum when they ran out of Gladiators to fight the Lions.
4. Nero
- Murdered his mother, killed anybody he felt intimidated by (this goes for probably everyone on this list lol), possibly burnt down Rome so that he could build a massive palace for himself.
He taxed the hell out of the citizens for his own personal public builds and was eventually deserted by everyone and committed suicide. Oh, he also kicked his pregnant wife to death
5. Caracalla
- Son of the great Septimus Severus, he ruled with jointly with his father, then jointly with his brother, until he had him assassinated so he could role solely by himself.
Greatly devalued the currency, and was eventually assassinated while urinating on the side of a road.
Someone here asked for reasons as to why we hate/love these guys, I think I went above and beyond but here it is